Windows Phone 8 is an inevitability, but it has been one that many users have been unsure of. Due to the probable change to the core of the operatingsystem, there have been doubts of whether it will remain cross-compatible with apps. A tweet from Microsoft's Director of Developer Experience has confirmed it, as WPCentral confirms.

For anyone who missed the Mix11 keynote, some videos of it have been preserved here. Brandon Watson is Microsoft's Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone, so his response can be taken to be the truth. Speaking technically however, it is unclear how Microsoft plan to make it work. If Windows Phone 8 boasts a higher resolution it will be odd to see how apps work, and whether they zoom in to be used or not. That in itself could be problematic for developers of Windows Phone 7 apps.

On the plus side, transitioning the apps may not be extremely difficult since they make use of Microsoft's SilverLight. This means that they could theoretically be ported very quickly, if they were not cross-compatible already. What is known of Windows Phone 8 at the moment is only that it may use the codename of 'Apollo'. The current version, at the time of writing is Mango, and it is scheduled to be updated to Tango in the future.

If the tip we've received in our inbox turns out to be true then Microsoft brick and mortar Stores are taking pre-orders for the AT&T-bound Nokia Lumia 900. One specific store, in Costa Mesa, California, is allegedly glad to take $25 from you despite for the fact that a final price is yet unknown. After handing over the cash future owners are reportedly being asked for their color preference: black or cyan.

Microsoft's Director of the Windows Phone program, Joe Belfiore, has detailed a number of Windows Phone 8 features in a leaked video intended for partners. PocketNow managed to secure a copy of the video and the feature list is long. Through speaking to PocketNow editors, we can confirm that the video is authentic, intended for internal use only, and Microsoft is planning the following for its next-generation of Windows Phone:

Hardware

Belfiore details all the forthcoming hardware support for the software platform. Below is the list of the major hardware changes coming. We'd also add LTE to the list (although, that will be here before Windows Phone 8's arrival with the Lumia 900). •Multi-core processors •Four screen resolutions •Full microSD card storage support •NFC radio support with contact-less payments "wallet experience"

Windows 8 integration

Synergy between the phone and the PC / tablet is going to be a big one. Not only will Windows Phone 8 share the same Metro style user interface as Windows 8 for tablets and PCs, but developers can reuse the same code for both operating systems. Additionally, the Zune Desktop is being scrapped in favor of a sync relationship with a companion app and the Xbox companion app will have a partner client on both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Similar to Windows 8, seamless SkyDrive integration will also play a big role with cloud syncing. And then there's NFC: in addition to providing that aforementioned "wallet experience" it will allow for tap-to-share capabilities between hardware-supported phones, tablets, and PCs.

Apps and Skype integration

Microsoft looks to be streamlining application development: there will be native code support for developers and app-to-app communication support. However, the biggest app details revealed are related to Skype integration. It is said to be fully integrated at the OS level. The camera app is also explained; OEMs can skin the app with viewfinders from third-parties; Microsoft is working especially close with Nokia on this.

Data management and business support

Like Android 4.0, Windows Phone 8 will do quite a bit on the data usage and management front. Windows Phone 8 will have a live tile for tracking usage and consumption. Called DataSmart, the feature will also attempt to give "WiFi connections precedence," says PocketNow. In addition, Bing local scout will include real-time location of nearby hotspots and Internet Explorer 10 will have built-in server-side compression to reduce data usage.

On the enterprise side, there will be BitLocker encryption support for full-disk encryption of Windows Phone 8 devices and a line-of-business application support for businesses to deploy apps behind company firewalls.

It's without a doubt a very hefty and exciting update, one that's expected to arrive later this year. Stay tuned as we learn more over the next couple of months, and perhaps at Mobile World Congress at the end of the month.

Update: Microsoft says it has "no official comment" on the leaked video.

Thanks to a recent leak which has revealed some interesting information about the next major Windows Phone version, I can now publicly discuss Windows Phone 8 for the first time.

Windows Phone 8, codenamed Apollo, will be based on the Windows 8 kernel and not on Windows CE as are current versions. This will not impact app compatibility: Microsoft expects to have over 100,000 Windows Phone 7.5-compatible apps available by the time WP8 launches, and they will all work fine on this new OS.

Windows Phone 8, as its name suggests, will also be tied closely to the desktop version of Windows 8 in other ways. They'll be launched closely to each other, and will share integrated ecosystems, thanks to the shared underlying code, components, and user experiences. Windows Phone 8 is part of the "Windows Reimagined" campaign that Microsoft announced for Windows 8. This makes sense as they're companion products in every sense of the word.

Windows Phone 8 will offer far more hardware choices than are available today, which will come in more form factors and offer more (four) screen resolutions, according to Pocketnow. (I can't independently confirm that last bit.) The compatible software services will be expanded dramatically, and made very consistent with what's being made available to desktop versions of Windows 8.

App-to-App communication. Because Windows Phone 8 apps, like Windows 8 apps, are sandboxed from each other, this new system will provide a Windows 8 contracts-like app-to-app communications capabilities.

Internet Explorer 10 Mobile. Windows Phone 8 will continue to use a highly tuned version of IE which utilizes the latest web technologies.

Companion experiences with Windows 8. Microsoft is offering a very similar user experience across phone (Windows Phone 8), PC (Windows 8), and TV (Xbox vNext). Pocketnow says there will be a new sync client, and not Zune PC software, though I can't confirm that part, and a set of common cloud services that will work across all three. This includes the ability to sync content (photos, music, movies) between the three screens, phone management from PC or web, shared content between each device, and Xbox LIVE games, entertainment, and more.

SkyDrive integration. Microsoft will make your content available on all of its platforms via SkyDrive.

Skype app. Still a separate but better app and not integrated into OS. Still optional.

Local Scout. Now with personal recommendations. Camera improvements. New "lens apps" and a far more powerful camera experience.

Business features. Windows Phone 8 will include full-device, hardware-accelerated encryption with BitLocker and always-on Secure Boot capabilities, just like Windows 8. Also, it will support additional Exchange ActiveSync policies and System Center configuration settings and inventory capabilities. Businesses will be able to distribute phone apps privately as they can with Windows 8 apps.

Obviously, there are still plenty of questions and of course information I'll continue to protect. But suffice to say that Microsoft's plans for Windows Phone are quite exciting indeed.

Thanks to a leaked video — a video that Microsoft made for Nokia — we now have lots of details about Windows Phone 8 (WP8). From deep Windows 8, Skype, and SkyDrive integration, through to the addition of NFC 'wallet' payments and BitLocker encryption, it sounds like Windows Phone 8 will be close to iOS and Android in terms of features. The interesting stuff is under the hood, though: WP8 will have the Windows 8 kernel instead of the Windows CE kernel of its predecessors. Through the Win 8 kernel, WP8 will support native code and multi-core processors. It will also have the same network stack, security, and multimedia support as Windows 8. While Win 8 apps won't be directly compatible with Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore says developers will be able to 'reuse — by far — most of their code.

So we’ve been thinking about how well Windows Phones are actually doing in the United States, since we’ve all seen Microsoft continuing to lose it’s market share in the mobile world. Now while we are unable to get exact ‘sales’ figure thanks to Microsoft (and manufactures) being quite ‘hush-hush’ on the whole matter, we decided to look at customer satisfaction – because that can directly influence sales and word-of-mouth advertising.

There’s no doubt to us that despite Android and iOS being very good and not to mention popular, Windows Phone is just a better built OS which differs from anything we’ve ever seen. So how do we plan to judge customer satisfaction levels in the States? Well we’ll be looking at each of the big 4 carriers in the States – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. We’ll be generally looking at the top 15 phones rated based on Carrier Ratings. Following that, we’ll also look at Amazon’s best rated phones (since they’re neutral and have all devices on their site). It’s worth noting that this exact test may have been done elsewhere on the net, but we have yet to see one so we’ve decided to put together a small guide, so let’s get to it!

Summary: So It seems that Windows Phones are rated extremely well on AT&T. The best Rated phones is a Windows Phone – The HTC Titan with 4.9/5 meaning that it actually has a 98% customer satisfaction rating. That’s quite an achievement, and it’s nearly mirrored by the Samsung Focus S which slides comfortably into 4th. In fact, the lowest rated Windows Phone still get’s 4.2/5, which is a 84% satisfaction rating. And they, it outranks the iPhones!

It’s great to see that all 5 Windows Phones are in the top 25 of AT&T, despite some of them being Gen 1 devices which were released in late 2009! Based on these results, it’s no doubt that AT&T customers believe that Windows Phones are as great to use as we do.

Total Number of Customer Ratings on AT&T for Windows Phones: 1,689 people have reviewed Windows Phone devices on AT&T

Average Customer Rating for Windows Phone (for fun): Windows Phones on AT&T average 4.5 out of 5, which ‘roughly’ translates to a 90% approval rating for the OS from Redmond, over 5 phones.

Summary: Sprint has been absolutely pitiful with getting in Windows Phones, and on top of that showing interest on future Windows Phones. They still continue to survive on a solitary Windows Phone, the HTC Arrive which has actually been quite well received at Sprint. The HTC Arrive currently has a 4.5/5 star rating – a 90% customer Satisfaction Rating. So it astounds us how little interest Sprint have for future Windows Phones, despite the Arrive being the 5th best rated phone on their website (only 0.1 ratings behind the iPhone 4S)! Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the Arrive has a keyboard, catering to a different group of smartphone lovers, but we hope to see more on the list soon.

Total Number of Customer Ratings on AT&T for Windows Phones: 302 people have reviewed a Windows Phone device on Sprint

Average Customer Rating for Windows Phone (for fun): Windows Phone on Sprint average 4.5 out of 5, which ‘roughly’ translates to a 90% approval rating for the OS from Redmond, over 1 phone.

Summary: T-Mobile have only just entered the the Windows Phone Market with the HTC Radar, and followed it up with the Nokia Lumia 710's (both are gen 2 devices). And both devices are doing extremely well, we might add. Since the Lumia 710 comes in both black and white, we’ve listed it as two separate devices (not that it matters, they’ve both got the same high rating). The HTC Radar is the 2nd best rated phone on T-Mobile with a customer satisfaction level of 96%. It’s only just behind the White Galaxy S2 (which we might add only has 8 ratings, so it’s surely going to drop with more ratings).

The Lumia 710's from Nokia are both doing extremely well, ranking 3rd and 4th on the list, and both have a 95% customer high rating, with 4.7/5. It’s clear that T-Mobile Customers also believe that Windows Phone devices are amazing. Overall, all 3 Windows Phone devices rank in the top 5!

Total Number of Customer Ratings on AT&T for Windows Phones: 344 people have reviewed Windows Phone devices on AT&T

Average Customer Rating for Windows Phone (for fun): Windows Phone on AT&T average 4.73 out of 5, which ‘roughly’ translates to a 95% approval rating for the OS from Redmond, over 3 phones.

Summary: Verizon is yet another American Carrier which has been hesitant to adopt Windows Phones (despite once again their Windows Phone – The Trophy being highly rated). They have yet to delve into Gen 2 devices, and continue to persist with the highly rated HTC Trophy which has a rating of 4.5/5. That’s a 90% rating, proving once again that despite low sales, people actually love their Windows Phones (generally).

We might add though that unlike Sprint, Verizon are willing to look at more Windows Phones once they get LTE options (much like the latest phones have).

Total Number of Customer Ratings on AT&T for Windows Phones: 859 people have reviewed Windows Phone devices on AT&T

Average Customer Rating for Windows Phone (for fun): Windows Phones on Verizon average 4.5 out of 5, which ‘roughly’ translates to a 90% approval rating for the OS from Redmond, over 1 phone.

AmazonNumber of Windows Phones for Sale - 10 (Five Gen 1, Five Gen 2) (Only 10 are sold locally in the USA, so the other devices have been disregarded for this article)

Summary: Amazon is a great go-to place to see how phones are doing, since Amazon are a big online retailer that sell phones on-contract and off-contract. Their ratings were a little jumbled up as you’ll see above, but you get the idea. The great news here, is that of the 10 Windows Phones Amazon has listed, 6 of them are actually in the top 10 best rated phones on Amazon. Furthermore, the top 4 phones across the entire Amazon listings are Windows Phones! To put that in perspective, 60% of the best rated phones on Amazon are Windows Phones. Customer Satisfaction is quite impressive for these devices, and we’re quite pleased to see this.

Interestingly enough, the best rated phone is actually a Gen 1 WP7 device, and then followed by three Gen 2 devices. We’ve also listed the other devices under ‘other phones’ of which didn’t make it into the top 10 just for fun, but it’s worth pointing out that the Lumia 710's haven’t been rated enough to be higher on the board.

Total Number of Customer Ratings on Amazon for Windows Phones: 495 people have reviewed Windows Phone devices on Amazon.

Average Customer Rating for Windows Phone (for fun): Windows Phones on Verizon average 4.58 out of 5, which ‘roughly’ translates to a 92% approval rating for the OS from Redmond, over 10 phones.

So what can we see from the data we’ve collected above? Windows Phones are hot, they have a high satisfaction level, and for the most part, customers love them. Windows Phones are there in the top 10 of every carrier rating wise, and we know this is a good start. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite seem like those high ratings are translating to sales, but that need’s to be corrected by Microsoft and Manufacturers working with Carriers, and in a big way. This is the only beginning for Windows Phone 7, and we expect to see a LOT more from everyone above. A lot will also depend on how Nokia fares in the United States

I think we can all agree to the fact that Microsoft has rushed its new Windows Phone 7 mobile platform to the market in the last quarter of 2010. The initial iteration was lacking some basic features -- not only present on competing platforms but imperative to the user experience -- some of which were later addressed by the NoDo and then the Mango update.

There were several voices (not only) on the Internet that criticized Microsoft and its Windows Phone 7 platform because of several reasons including, but not limited to, the low number of apps in the Marketplace, the lack of copy and paste operations, missing video calling options, but mainly because we never got the chance to see official numbers representing sales of Windows Phones. The marketplace is growing fast (and now, at the time of this editorial, it already has close to 70,000 titles), the NoDo update brought copy and paste functionality, Mango and some wave-two devices added video calling and Nokia's recent financial report talks about over one million devices sold from the end of October until the end of January (but still no global numbers).

Windows Phone 7 is still well below a two-digit OS market share, increasing ever so slowly but steadily (and even decreasing recently); however, Apple’s iOS at 43% and Google’s Android at 47% seem very far away. So, will a platform refresh like Windows 8 put Microsoft back in the game (for real this time)?

After seeing details of the upcoming OS refresh codenamed Apollo we can all agree that it will be as big of an update as Windows Phone 7 was when it replaced Windows Phone 6.5. Not only will it be a new mobile platform but it will very well blend in with Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system for PCs, slates and convertibles.

The lack of support for removable storage was probably one of the most criticized Microsoft moves with regards to Windows Phone 7. Users wanted to be able to manually sync all sorts of documents while Microsoft considered it was best to sync music, videos and pictures via the Zune software. Additionally, a huge part of the user base (or future possible users that refrained from going Windows Phone 7) was complaining about the limited internal storage space on devices. Eight gigabytes were not enough and 16GB were still too little to accommodate huge multimedia libraries for some users.

Windows Phone 8 will bring back removable storage. What does this mean? You will most probably be able to expand your storage with a microSD card to a yet undisclosed total storage supported by the platform. Not only that but you will probably be able to use your phone as mass storage and sync all sorts of documents.

While Windows Phone 7 users were quite happy with the way the OS performed on single-core CPUs clocking anywhere between 1GHz and 1.5GHz – because of the way the platform was built to be fluid – their friends using Apple’s iPhone and Android were rocking dual-cores (and soon quad-cores). Now that Microsoft is preparing dual-core support for Windows Phone 8, people using other platforms are already criticizing Windows Phone users; we need to get one thing straight: Windows Phone 8 will be a completely new OS and experience. It’s not Windows Phone 7 that needs dual-core; it’s Windows Phone 8 that will support dual-core. And, looking at the current Windows platform (and how well it is optimized) chances are Windows Phone 8 will be buttery-smooth with its new chip support for which it will be specially built.

Four screen resolutions are rumored. We currently have WVGA but Windows Phone 7 Tango was rumored to lower the bar to HVGA (a resolution that was mentioned in the very early stages of Windows Phone 7). What could be the other two screen resolutions? Well, qHD and 720p seem valid candidates. Let’s take a look at those: HVGA (320x480) with aspect ratio of 1.5; WVGA (480x800) with aspect ratio of 1.6; qHD (540x960) with aspect ratio of 1.7; 720p/HD (720x1280) with aspect ratio of 1.7.

We can already see the diversity in hardware but on the other hand we can already hear the critics call out fragmentation. While we could easily brush that off with Eric Schmidt’s argument about “device differentiation” we’ll just say that anyone who used Windows Phone and its Metro user interface knows how scalable it could be.

We’ve seen that on the hardware side, Microsoft seems to listen to the community feedback: adding the option for external memory, higher screen resolutions (and probably lower ones for budget phones) and just as much horsepower as it is needed to deliver a fluid user experience (and maximize battery life). Hardware-wise, Windows Phone 8 will be right there and fans will definitely continue to defend it against the competition, which by then will probably need and support quad-core processors.

On the software side Microsoft seems to plan on seriously pushing the concept of "Windows reimagined”. In a somewhat similar way to Google and its Ice Cream Sandwich OS (which is a unifying one for smartphones and tablets) Windows Phone 8 will do much more. It will be part of the Windows 8 family for PCs, slates and convertibles. It will not only lend its looks to Windows 8 but it will use many components from the PC OS; developers will be able to "reuse -- by far -- most of their code" and port applications from the desktop to the phone, as Joe Belfiore said. The Marketplace will see an impressive growth giving users plenty of choices. And with native code, apps will be easily portable among platforms like iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

Skype, now part of Microsoft, will have deep integration with the OS; you’ll have the same experience when answering a Skype call like the one you currently have when picking up a normal phone call. In addition, native BitLocker encryption as well as business apps (with the ability for corporations to deploy and manage) will definitely push Windows Phone 8 in the business and corporate segment.

It looks like great things are coming to Windows Phone 8 software-wise too. If Microsoft can couple all of these with an improved cloud and online experience they might have a winner. The company appears to have targeted the average user with its Windows Phone 7 platform; this saw many of its old Windows Mobile users (mainly the power users, hackers, tweakers, etc.) go Android. Sharing features like the kernel, networking stacks, security, and multimedia support with Windows 8, Microsoft can crack the ice once again for its new platform; whether it will become what Windows Mobile and Windows phone was back in the day is anyone’s guess.

Let’s not forget about Android Ice Cream Sandwich (and the probably upcoming letter “J”-named refresh); we should not forget about Apple’s iOS and the upcoming iterations. The competition never sleeps. However, those who are tired of seeing a grid of icons, those who want better battery life, seamless PC-tablet-phone integration, a fluid experience, shared apps, and so on will probably consider Windows Phone 8. Microsoft won’t turn die-hard iOS and Android fans but they can gain back some of the users lost in favor of the competition once Windows Phone 7 hit the market (and that’s a solid starting point).

The Lumia family is growing in number today, courtesy of Nokia's announcement that a glossy white variant of the Lumia 800 will be released later this month. Apart from its brighter case and glossy finish, this is the same handset that's been available in cyan, magenta and black already. That means a 3.7-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display, a 1.4GHz single-core processor, and Windows Phone 7.5 enhanced with a number of preloaded Nokia apps. We've also spotted a new Ministy of Sound application for the UK, which should be coming to all Lumia handsets in that market. Nokia reminds us that app selection will differ with regions.

Besides the UK, Nokia's home nation of Finland will also be among the first to receive stock of the white Lumia 800, along with Russia, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Poland. Other markets in which the Lumia 800 is already out will follow on from March onwards.

An image of what looks to be a new LG Windows Phone has been leaked by PocketNow. Codenamed the LG Miracle, it's allegedly the same device we reported on back in December, known then as the "Fantasy". According to the leaked specs we're looking at a mid-range 1GHz Snapdragon handset with a 4-inch super-bright NOVA display (though it's not clear if it'll be the NOVA Plus tech featured on the latest Prada phone), 8GB of storage, HSPA connectivity, a front-facing VGA camera, and a five-megapixel rear camera capable of shooting 720p video.

PocketNow also notes that the Miracle has an NFC chip, which according to recent reports isn't due until Windows Phone Apollo hits in Q4 of this year. It's not clear if the leaked specs are correct, but if they are, they suggest that NFC may be coming to Windows Phone sooner than expected. We're expecting to see the Miracle along with other handsets from LG at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, so stay tuned — we'll be bringing you full coverage.

Microsoft has released a beta version of a toolkit that lets you create Windows Phone apps that can connect to Amazon Web Services.

The announcement of the beta in the Interoperability blog gives the reason for the toolkit as being that developers want to have choice and be able to reuse their assets and skills when creating cloud-connected mobile applications.

The toolkit makes the Amazon S3, SimpleDB, and SQS Cloud Services directly available to Windows Phone 7 Developers via C# APIs and the intended audience isn’t Windows Phone developers moving away from Azure (perish the thought), but developers who’ve been creating apps against AWS for technologies such as Android or iOS. Even so it represents the dilemma that Microsoft has - support other cloud architectures or promote only Azure.

As well as a Getting Started Guide downloadable as a pdf, there are also Channel 9 videos for Getting Started, and sample walkthoughs for each of S3, Simple DB and SQS.

Jean Paoli, General Manager of Interoperability Strategy at Microsoft, said:

“The release of the Windows Phone Toolkit for AWS Beta proves that Microsoft’s goal of building a Cloud-friendly phone is true across vendor boundaries. It literally takes minutes to create a Cloud-ready application in C# with this toolkit. We look forward to this toolkit eventually resulting in many more great apps in the rapidly growing Windows Phone marketplace.”

While the official reasoning behind the beta is cross-boundary friendly helpfulness, the reality is that Microsoft can’t really afford to ignore all the mobile phone apps that have already been created and hosted on Amazon for iPhone and Android. If a few of you could see your way clear to porting those apps to run on Windows Phone, Microsoft would really be very, very grateful.